


What It Means To Be A Rescuer

by ThePensMightierThanTheSword



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Rescue Bots
Genre: F/M, Human OC - Freeform, Original Character(s), different OC for each pairing, follows each episode
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-10-18 21:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10625784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePensMightierThanTheSword/pseuds/ThePensMightierThanTheSword
Summary: Robyn was adopted by the Burns' when she was little after her parents died. Years later, she becomes an emergency responder and rides a motorbike to keep up with the speed demons of the island. When the Rescue bots join the family, how does it affect Robyn's way of life? Does she worm her way into the fire-bot's spark? Does he earn a place in her heart? GOES THROUGH EACH EPISODE PLUS ORIGINAL CHAPTERS!!!





	1. Family Of Heroes

Robyn's PoV

What does it mean to be a hero? I wouldn't know, I just do my job everyday and that's keeping everyone in Griffin Rock safe. That doesn't make me a hero. Being a hero is doing things beyond the call of duty. But that was all I did: my duty. And that's all I could ask for. Things I did in my down time were gymnastics and cooking. Now I know that my chocolate cake is top notch, not to blow my own horn, but it's no reason to think of me as heroic. Even so, if anyone had to be called heroes it was the Burns family. Not me. I was a Burns-Anderson. Not actually related. Probably wondering how that happened huh? Well I ain't gonna tell yet and there's nothing anyone can do to make me. I'll talk about it in my own time and my time only. Only Charlie had heard me even make a whisper about it and even then I was twelve. Cody doesn't know what happened fully, just that there was an accident.

"Robyn, we're all going out on patrol. You coming?" Charlie asked me from downstairs when he currently was. I was up in the bathroom putting my hair into a ponytail so it wouldn't get too messed up when I was out riding. Instead of going around in the police car like Kade, Graham and Dani did with Charlie, I had my own motorbike which I got three years ago.

"Uh, yeah. I'm coming now." I called down as I tightened my bobble and double checked my leotard wasn't showing through my shirt. Thankfully it wasn't. It was one of my more bold ones so the brightness of the colours may have shown through my satin long sleeved blue police shirt and black skinny leather-ish pants. No offence to Charlie, but I wasn't going to wear the same type of trousers as he did. His were really out of fashion. When I was satisfied with how I looked, I bounded down the stairs, grabbing my helmet that I hung on the banister.

"What did I tell you about leaving your helmet on the banister Robyn?" Charlie repeated for the thousandth time this month alone as I passed him in the kitchen, heading to the firepole.

"What!? It's easier and quicker than getting it from the garage each time I need it." I protested as I wrapped my arms around the pole, helmet strap hanging around my arm.

"Not when you're going to the garage to get to your bike anyway. Please put your helmet on the shelf down there."

"No promises." I laughed, sliding down the pole, silencing any further conversation. Don't get me wrong, I really do respect Charlie and I'm super grateful for him taking me in and calling me his own, but it was just easier to grab it coming down the stairs! Once I was down in the bunker, I swung my leg over my motorbike, pulled on my helmet, revved the engine and pulled out of the firehouse garage where the rest of the Burns', minus Cody, were waiting for me. "I'll go downtown and report anything I find." I shouted slightly to make sure I was heard over the sound of the engines.

"Just make sure you're at the dedication ceremony this afternoon. You're helping me present the new emergency vehicles" Charlie answered. I just gave him a thumbs up before rolling down the drive and onto the main road. Unlike everyone else, I wasn't getting a new rescue vehicle. Guess I'm just not important enough to get one. Not that I would've taken one anyway. I saved up for this thing for years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
"Ugh, sorry I'm late Charlie. Mr. Pettypaws was stuck in a tree again." I explained to the chief as I rushed up on stage where he was currently waiting, along with a large crowd chatting away, waiting for the ceremony to begin.

"It's fine Robyn. You're just in time. You remember your lines right?" he asked me. I nodded confidently.

"I may forget when I put my keys most of the time, but I'm not that forgetful." I joked. "But seriously, I lost my house keys this morning. They're in the bunker somewhere." words carried on spewing out of my mouth. Mayor Luskey clearing his throat stopped me from carrying on any further as the ceremony was beginning. I took my place next to Charlie with my arms behind my back.

"Thank you for coming folks. Our town has a long history of being on the cutting edge of new technology." Charlie started.

"Now thanks to the people in D.C., we give you the lastest in emergency response: the rescue bots!" we announced as the floor behind us opened up and the four new vehicles rose up from the ground, able to be viewed by the public. There was a red firetruck, a blue police car, a green bulldozer and a yellow helicopter. Not too shabby. The guys in D.C. really outdid themselves. The crowd burst into applause.

"Robots, transform!" Charlie ordered and one by one, each of the emergency vehicles folded in and out on itself to form a… very very tall robot with their own colour schemes. Even I had to applaud to that. They were impressive to say the least. "These robotic rescue vehicles will streamline our resources." he added on before nodding to me.

"Now, one team with one bot and one human can do the work of an entire police force, fire department, emergency response unit and engineering core." I explained to the attentive crowd. As I listed off each team, one of the Burns stood next to their respective robots. "Each robot is programmed to respond only to the command of its handler." I continued.

"So you can sleep at night, knowing that Griffin Rock is protected by the very best technology and humanity have to offer." Charlie finished off. A few photos from Huxley later and we were done.

"I was so sure I was gonna stumble on my words. That is not as easy as you make it out to be chief." I smiled at him once people's attention were more on the robots than on the family. Then, all of our comms started going off. Charlie answered.

"This is the chief, go ahead." he responded. "Fire at the natural history museum." before he could even finish the end of his sentence, the firebot transformed back into his firetruck form. That's weird.

"What in the…?" I thought aloud.

"I didn't tell it to do that." Kade commented just as confused as I was.

"It's new technology son, bound to be some bugs." Charlie explained to Kade… too quickly. He answered way to fast then for my liking.

"...Well come on slow pokes! We got a fire to put out." Dani announced, running to her helicopter.

"See you there." I said begrudgingly. I hate it when we have to put out a fire.

"You join in on clean up Rob. Don't need you slowing us down." Kade commented, making me glare at him like murder did it's victims.

"Shut up Kade." I hissed before forcefully shoving my helmet on and running over to my bike.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I reached the museum, the rest of the team were well underway and it was obvious there was a lot of friction between the Burns and their new bots save from chief.

"Nice for you to show up once the fire's out Robbie." Kade teased as we were all heading into the museum.

"Don't call me that. Are you sure the fire's out?" I asked cautiously, hugging myself as a way of comfort knowing that there was no fire left in the building. Once inside, there was water dripping everywhere from Kade's handiwork. "So what happened here exactly Graham?"

"Looks like a short started the fire but this should hold for a while." Graham explained as he fiddled about with one of the circuits in one of the displays. "The cyberwire's too much for these old circuits." he continued.

"Well it's just a good thing nobody got hurt." Charlie said. Then, sparks started coming from one of the displays above Charlie and Graham before the head of a dino started falling towards them.

"Look out!" I yelled, acting on impulse and pushing both of them out the way, my own body falling on the floor. But before the dino made impact with my ribcage, the firebot shot its hand through the broken window and stopped the dino head from falling. I looked up to it to see the red bot almost staring at me.

'I swear there are eyes behind that visor.' I said to myself in my head.

"I didn't tell it to do that." Kade repeated from earlier.

"I'm not complaining." I muttered.

"Robyn are you okay?" Dani asked me, helping me up.

"Your robot was still in rescue mode. You gave it the directive to save lives, so it did." Charlie pointed out to Kade.

"Your welcome Robyn." Kade sassed.

"Oh bite me." I spat at him, crossing my arms in a huff.

"Thanks Robyn." Graham thanked me. I just smiled.

"We better head out." Dani decided. The others nodded and followed her lead. Quickly I turned to face the thing that saved my life, only to find it still looking at me. It was kinda creepy. Nevertheless I sent the robot a smile.

"Thank you." I whispered to it.

"What was that Robyn?" Charlie asked me, snapping my head to his general direction.

"Nothing!" I called back to him, turning back to the robot, but it was gone. "Huh." I uttered to myself before jogging through the museum to catch up with the others already at the entrance.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was later on in the evening when we were all having dinner. That firetruck robot was still sticking to the front of my mind. Why did it look like it was looking at me? How did it have eyes underneath a visor? If there;s eyes in the design, why's there even a visor there?

"I still don't get it, how did Kade's robot know to-" Cody started speaking before Dani cut him off.

"Hey pass the carrots would you?" she asked Graham. "I noticed a glitch or two with my coptor but at least I had it under control."

"A glitch is one thing. What I saw-" Cody tried again, but this time he was cut off by Charlie, making me annoyed. I know they aren't doing it on purpose, but they must hear him right?

"Kade, Dani, Graham, Robyn, you guys did great work today." Charlie praised us, but I saw it made Cody feel even worse.

"Can I be excused?" Cody asked Charlie before running off.

"I'm gonna go check on him." I decided after a minute of him not coming back. I excused myself from the table and went to go look in one of the few places he'd be. I quickly slid down the firepole all the way into the bunker where Cody was at the bottom.

"Hey Cody, you-" I started but he shushed me, pointing to the bots who were… alive. What. The. Hell?

"...Those humans will never understand us. We'll never belong here." the red one was saying.

"I know what you mean." Cody inputted.

"Cody!" I exclaimed. Why did he just let them all know we're here! Fast, but not fast enough, the four robots slid down their visors and became still.

"You guys need to drop the act. We've seen you." I told them, gaining more confidence now and moving over towards them slightly.

"Don't even bother. You're not fooling anyone. Trust me, living in Griffin Rock, I know robots." Cody told them.

"We know robots." I added, not wanting to be left out.

"We know robots and you guys are the worst robots we've ever seen." he finished. They all started shifting a little.

"We've failed our mission, our cover is blown! If these humans knows, they'll tell the others." the blue and white police robot exclaimed sadly. Sadly? So these guys are definitely more than machines that's for sure if they can feel emotion.

"Are you kidding? And waste the chance to know something they don't?" Cody replied, walking over to stand by the coptor bot. "I'm the best thing that could've happened to your mission." he continued.

"Am I dead meat to you, or what?" I asked Cody in disbelief. He keeps leaving me out as if I'm not here!

"Sorry Robyn. We're gonna teach you everything you need to know about Earth." he corrected himself.

"Can either of you teach me how to make my human stop yelling?" the copter bot asked hopefully.

"Dani? Yeah, that's not gonna happen. It is Dani after all." I answered.

"I'm Cody by the way, and this is Robyn, my older adopted sister." Cody introduced us to the copter bot, shaking his hand.

"I'm Blades." Blades replied. At least I can stop calling him copter bot. Do the others have names too?

"Boulder." the bulldozer introduced himself.

"Classified." the police bot stated.

"That's Chase." Boulder informed us.

"And I'm Heatwave." Heatwave introduced himself. "So Cody, Robyn, now you know what we are, name one good reason we shouldn't leave this planet right now." Heatwave added.

"Um… in case a dino head tries to kill me again?" I suggested pathetically. "No?" It was then I noticed his eyes. "Hey, so you do have eyes! I thought I was going crazy. Thanks for the save earlier, but why were you staring at me?" I asked Heatwave, looking at him with general curiosity.

"...Part of learning about humans. We have to study you." he replied after a few seconds of silence.

"Wait, I know, follow me." Cody said, heading towards one of the tunnels. We were all soon going through the tunnels until we came out on a ridge. "There's tunnels like this one all over the island. And they all lead back to the bunker. Great for sneaking out." Cody told them. Boulder said something about carbon which I didn't quite catch but I guess he liked it. "Yeah, I guess it is. So why would you want to leave?" he asked Heatwave who couldn't find a response for that.

"You know what, if you guys are gonna stay, you need to learn how to act when in public. Y'know, so people won't discover you're not robots like we did. Mainly because you won't be living in their garage, but my point still stands." I realised. "Cody, what movie's playing at the drive in theatre tonight?" I asked him.

"Alien Invasion 2, why?" he asked, confused.

"Who's up for a field trip?" I inquired, smiling brightly.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This is what everyone's gonna expect you to act like." I told them as we sat on a small hill behind the theatre, but close enough we could see the film. Cody was sitting on Heatwave's tyre guard eating popcorn while I curled into Boulder's scoop-y thing. Cody slid off the bot to demonstrate.

"Lock your arms and legs like this. You all try." Cody told them, forcing me to move from my comfy spot. It takes a while to make metal warm with your own body heat, doesn't he know that? Now I'm cold. They all transformed and started walking around like real robots. Not that they weren't real robots to begin with. All but Heatwave were doing it.

"Heatwave?" I asked him with an 'I'm waiting' tone.

"Really?" he sighed before walking around all robotic. From behind him I could see… Blades doing the robot.

"You taught him that, didn't you?" Cody asked me with an unimpressed look.

"No I did not. Wish I did though." I corrected him. We made Blades cease dancing.

"Look you two, I understand what you're doing. But I just don't get how talking-like-this is gonna make my ride along respect me." he told us.

"The trick with Kade is to make him think he's in charge. Trust me, I've been doing it for years." Cody told him.

"And don't worry, if he does something you don't like, I'll sort him out." I added with an evil grin, punching my palm.

"Robyn!" Cody exclaimed in shock.

"What? I was kidding… mostly." I winked. A roar made it's way through the street, making all of us turn to the source.

"Is that part of the film?" Blades asked us. A dinosaur then came onto the street next to the theatre and started wrecking things on the road.

"Oh my god, how is that thing here?" I thought aloud in shock.

"I know I'm new here but aren't dinosaurs extinct?" Blades asked in general.

"This one's about to be." Heatwave replied, making a move towards it.

"Wait Heatwave, look if anyone sees you taking down that dino on your own, there goes your cover. And your mission." Cody warned him, forcing him to stay put. Soon we found out the machine was attracted to light and got it to follow us to an unpopulated area by the bots sirens and headlights. Both Cody and I were inside Heatwave after he decided to not leave us on the hillside.

"I'll comm link the chief in." Heatwave told us through the console.

"This is the chief, go ahead." Charlie answered.

"Dad, first don't worry, I'm with Robyn and the rescue bots. And you're not going to believe this but… they're not robots. They're from another planet. They're aliens!" Cody explained briefly to Charlie.

"It's true Charlie."

"...How long have you known?" he asked us. What?

"Wait you know!?" I asked in surprise. The chief then spoke with Chase before returning to us.

"Cody, you're not driving are you?" he asked.

"You really think I'd let him drive? I don't have a death wish! Besides, Heatwave's driving." I told him. Once we reached the forest, we cut all the light and cut the engines, hoping the dino wouldn't find us. Charlie, Dani, Kade and Graham soon did though and took the bots off us.

"Stay here you two." Charlie told us before getting into Chase and driving off.

"Like hell I am! I'm just as much an emergency responder as anyone else. Come on Cody." I said, grabbing Cody by the wrist and dragging him in the same direction as the others went. Cody kept talking to everyone on the comm link on how to interact with their bots and how to stop the dino. After consulting with Frankie Greene, we had a plan to stop the dinosaur. Cody and I had to hide in the bush until the machine was trapped in the cage. We managed to hear and see Kade freaking out at Heatwave talking which was a riot. He then went up to the top ot the ditch they were in and he set his siren on full brightness, attracting the dinosaur's attention off of Chase and onto him. The dinosaur came chargin but he easily flipped him over into the ditch.

"Wow. He's strong." I thought aloud, making Cody look at me. "What? He is. Come on, they're dropping the cage." We got into the ditch, getting mud all over the back of my trousers unfortunately and cautiously made our way to the struggling, trapped dinosaur.

"I hope Frankie's right." Cody uttered before reaching for a panel and pulling the kill switch. Thankfully it worked and the dino stopped struggling.

"Now, how do we get this back to the museum?" I wondered aloud.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
"Think anyone will notice?" Graham asked as we all witnessed the dino in the most unnatural position ever back in the museum.

"Nah." I said making our way out of the museum. As we went down the steps, Charlie stopped us.

"Wait, I want a picture of my heroes." he said, Cody moving away sadly as he said so. "All my heroes." he added. We all joined him, save for Kade.

"Come on dad, just because he answered one call doesn't mean he's part of the team." Kade pointed out.

"Yes, it does." a familiar voice interrupted, making Kade scream. "Or we're not." Heatwave added, removing his visor. Dani and Graham also freaked out which was fun to see. "Cody and Robyn are our liaisons on this mission. They're the reason we're even giving this place a chance. Are we clear?" he got all up in Kade's face growling. I so wish that camera was recording right now!

"Dad, did that robot just talk back to me?" Kade asked Charlie.

"What do you think?" I asked sarcastically, rolling my eyes. "My brother ladies and gentlemen."

"Something's definitely wrong with the robots." Dani added.

"We can't use technology prone to malfunction." Graham pointed out.

"They're not malfunctioning… They're aliens."

"WHAT!" *click!* The camera went with Kade, Graham and Dani pulling shocked faces, Charlie smiling normally, Cody taking up the entire lower part of the photo and myself holding up a thumbs up, leaning on Heatwave's leg.

Oh yeah, this was gonna be interesting.


	2. Under Pressure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't own Rescue Bots

"Do I want to even know how this mower decided it wanted to re-enact the 'Fast and the Furious' downtown?" I asked Charlie and Chase over the comm link as we all chased after a lawn mower that had gone out of control and started creating havoc while we were on patrol. This stuff always has to happen in Griffin Rock. Why here? Can't something happen in Moscow next time? Nothing ever happens in Moscow!

"I don't know Robyn. Let's just hope we can stop it." Charlie replied. "We could use a hand here." he added, directing that statement towards the rest of the team still at the firehouse.

"What's the chances we could get some back up Cody?" I also asked Cody who was currently at the command centre

"Uh, that might be a while Robyn." Cody replied meekly.

"You're kidding right? Then tell your siblings and their partners to get their butts and engines in gear and get over here!" I shouted into the comm link, my voice muffled slightly from my black helmet before shutting it off, leaving no time for Cody to reply. Honestly, how hard is it to work with your partner? I understand if it's Kade, but why are Graham and Dani having problems? They're normally better at this stuff, Graham more so, but still.

Soon enough, Charlie, Chase and I were lead by the lawn mower into an alley between two buildings. Dumpsters were lined up against the wall to the right and pipes slithering up both buildings up to the rooves. I pulled up behind Chase before coming to a standstill "Where did that meat mincer go?" escaped from my mouth just as the mechanical whirring and scraping made itself known from behind us. I screamed loudly as I quickly revved the engine when the mower started clipping the rear of my bike and sped forwards only to be met with a dead end. "Aw man." But for some reason Charlie and Chase started reversing full speed towards it before Chase transformed into bot mode, jumping behind it and grabbing it, successfully trapping it into a dumpster going on about not being compensated. That was just Chase being Chase. From the few days I've known him, I realised that Chase was a very by-the-book kind of bot. I mean, I know the police codes and guidelines but he takes them to a whole new level. It's just a good thing I'm not paired with him. There's only so much 10-4 talk I can take at a time.

"We missed it, didn't we?" Dani more or less stated instead of asked.

"Where the hell were you all?" I demanded as my other siblings, save Cody, and their partners showed up. I took off my helmet keeping it between my arm and hip as I sat on my motorbike, leaving my hair in a not so good way as I hadn't put it into a ponytail, only loose pigtails. So now I had strands of loose hair that had easily fallen out of my bobbles. "We could have been as good as dead if it wasn't for Chase!"

"Our rides weren't letting us drive. They're slowing us down." Kade commented from inside Heatwave who obviously didn't appreciate the comment as he quickly transformed, trapping Kade in his interior.

"Quick enough for you?" Heatwave asked him snidely, a grin easily heard in his voice. However I disregarded everyone around me as I swung my leg around my bike so I was now standing so I could kneel down and inspect the damage on the back of the bike. The mower had easily blown the tyre and the exhaust pipe was a bit scratched and dented among a few other things I couldn't recognise as I wasn't an expert on mechanics.

"Hey Robyn, you need any help fixing your bike? Those cables look pretty damaged." I heard Graham say to me as he was now kneeling next to me. When did he get there without me noticing?

"Thanks Graham, but you've got your own problems at the moment with your inventions and so on. Plus, you need to have some time with Boulder, you know, get used to him and all that jazz." I responded. "Besides," I continued, rising to my feet and pulling out my phone. "I have someone who can fix this stuff up in a jif." I told him, snapping a picture and sending it to my repairman so they knew what they were dealing with. I was soon sent a replying saying 'send it over'.

"If only it was as easy as you made it sound." Graham sighed.

"I'm sure your new doo-hickie ain't that bad. You'll crack it." I joked, knowing that wasn't what he was talking about.

"What do you know about having these guys as partners? You chose to work on your own You should consider yourself lucky." Graham replied, not realising how much his words deeply offended me.

"You know what, you're right. I did choose to be on my own. And you god damn know why I am!" I hissed at him, rage and sadness fuelling my quiet outburst.

"Robyn what are you-?" Graham started.

"No, don't even start. You know how it makes me feel when you bring that topic up. It's because I didn't want to be on my own I..." I tried shouting but it only came out as a shaky whisper. The feeling of tears brimming my eyes forced me to quickly wipe my eyes so I wouldn't get caught. I wasn't going to cry over this. Not after so long of not doing so. Taking a deep breath through my mouth I regained control of my emotions. "I am not going to discuss this with you. Just stop being a jerk." I glared at him before picking up my helmet which had fallen on the floor and grabbed the handles of the bike and started pushing it out of the alley and towards where the repairman was.

"I signed up to rescue people, not make nice with machines." I caught Kade saying as I started rolling past him.

"Well I signed up to protect people, not be surrounded by testosterone filled selfish, insensitive jerks. Looks like neither of us got what we wanted." I snapped at him as I walked past him. "I'm heading uptown to the repairman's to get my bike fixed, since some people can't get their priorities straight during emergencies!" I exclaimed, going past the bots and their partners.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So what was it this time? Doc Greene and his latest phenomenon or Dani and her latest attempt at a Sunday dinner?" Phillipa joked when she opened her garage door, allowing me enough room to get my bike in and then some. I still remember the first time she showed me the garage 'welcome to the nerd shack' was her main heading. As far as I knew, Phillipa spend almost her entire time in there save for sleeping and eating. With a main desk cluttered with gadgets and gizmos, a jar of red boiled candy lollies and sheets of paper falling onto it from the corkboard above it, it was a wonder how she got anything done. Supposedly she was one of those people who knew where everything was as long as the room was a complete mess. Other half finished projects like engines and a buggy in the corner littered the back wall and blueprints were plastered all over the brick wall on the right, the desk remaining on the left.

Phillipa Jones was my best friend ever since she moved to the island ten years ago. We actually met during class where she was actually able to make a compass from a paper clip, my protractor and my pencil sharpener. Don't ask me how, but to this day I still keep it in my drawer at home. Ever since then we kind of just stuck together. I didn't have a lot of friends back then and neither did she. Over the years she's actually matured quite a lot. The last time the family actually saw her was when she was thirteen and she was going through a grungy tomboy phase. Baggy jeans, football shirts, hair so short it was almost not even worth noting about the works! Was even on the football team for a few years before she confided in me that she wanted to pursue her 'destiny' in mechanics.

"Neither. Lawn mower decided it wanted to convert from a herbivore to a carnivore." I sassed her as she put on her safety goggles, cranking out her tools.

"Well a crushed exhaust ain't pretty but" she inspected on the stone floor while I sat down on the desk's wheelie chair helping myself to one of her red lollies. Pip was a sucker for them because she loved how they changed colour as it shrank and they would also dye your tongue. "It won't be the cause of you getting a new ride." she continued.

"Well that's good." came out of my lolly filled mouth in a muffled tone.

"Shame though, you could've shared one of those fancy new robots with your family. What's up with those things though? I've never seen tech quite like 'em." she asked, turning to face me and taking off her goggles.

"What can I say? They're government made. So it's beyond me." I lied. I hate lying to her but the bots' secret is not mine to share. I can only tell her if the bots give me the okay. Like they will anyway. If they had it their way, our family wouldn't have found out so what are the chances they'd let Pip know about them?

"You're gonna have to let me take a look under their hoods sometime Robyn."

"No! I mean, it-it's not my decision. They're not my vehicles. You'd need permission from one of the Burns'. I can ask for you though." I responded. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. I'll tell her they all said no and that'll be the end of it.

"Thanks. You're such a good friend, you know that?" she smiled, making the sorrow in my gut twist and tighten even more so.

"The bestest." I forced a smile. "So uh, how much am I gonna owe you for this?" I asked her, knowing she'd know I was talking about the bike.

"It is on the house once again. Just keep making sure our town is safe. I should be done by tomorrow. So you're gonna have to walk home sorry." she apologised sympathetically.

"That long? You sure you can't go any faster?" I pleaded. I needed my bike if there was an emergency. Not having it for so long was just begging for an emergency to come up.

"Unless you want me skipping meals to get this to you. Tomorrow is including if I half my sleeping time. I do have other things in my life other than being your mechanic. Plus, the top layers are practically destroyed. They'll need replacing. I trust you can paint them. Some of the wires have been frayed, torn or just plain sliced in half… and half again… and again. I'll need to replace them. It's the best I can do." she explained to me.

"Thanks Pip. I can probably wait that long… maybe." I laughed as I pulled the lolly from my mouth to speak.

"And quit taking my lollies. Go get your own." she said grabbing her welding helmet and warming up the welding laser for the few wires she could salvage.

"Thank you, really. I'll swing by tomorrow to pick it up. Probably a little after lunch." I told her.

"Nah don't bother. I'll drop it off. 'll give me a chance to see your family again. It's been years since I've seen them."

"It's really no trouble I can-"

"Robyn Burns-Anderson are you hiding me from them?" she teased as I opened up the garage door seeing as she closed it earlier.

"No it's just… they all think 'Phillipa' is a 'Phillip'." I cringed, awaiting the explosion.

"What!? You couldn't take ten seconds out of your day to tell them I'm a girl!" she exclaimed.

"You could've visited when you weren't in your grunge garbs or the overalls you wear nowadays."

"These are my oil stain clothes. I wear decent things too!" she shouted as I started walking down her drive. "Ugh whatever," she laughed. "Just don't do anything stupid until tomorrow yeah. Don't have your mighty steed to save you now."

"How can I? I'm leaving all the stupid with you?" (Anyone who got that reference, let me know in a review!) I yelled before starting an even paced jog back to the firehouse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Later on in the day, my clothes were sitting on a shelf with the reprise of 'What I've Been Looking For' from High School Musical blaring from the nearby speakers while I was clad in a cyan leotard with pink stripes down the forearms and the sleeves turning white halfway down. My hair had now been fixed and was up in a ponytail, bouncing as I went through my routine time and time again. With the song on repeat for my practices, I would be ready to throw the song track in a draw for a long time by the time I would be done with it. If I could throw it away I would but I needed to keep the music and go over the routines for each now and again so I had routines ready for any tournament or competition.

Gymnastics was what I did as my hobby. Dani had cooking, not that she was any good at it; Graham had classes, apparently he found that enjoyable; Kade had magazines and food. To be honest, his pass time I would be happy to participate in. I enjoy cooking just like Dani but unlike her, my food doesn't make people want to go looking for edible food in the garbage. However I adored gymnastics with a passion, always had. I started when I was about four and have been doing it ever since. I almost gave up on it but my mother used to do gymnastics herself. So if I stopped I'd be losing a part of her in some way and I couldn't bear the idea of that. That's why when I moved in with the Burns', Charlie made sure I had things to do gymnastics. I had a balance beam, a vault, plenty of mats, bars, and a ring frame. Best part was only I could use them as Dani tried using them once and she ended up spraining her wrist. Now everyone else needed supervision if they were to try and use it as well as my permission.

Suddenly, everything became silent as the speakers which were blaring my song on repeat shut off making me lose my balance in shock and fall off the balance beam and roll from my butt to my back where Cody was there looking over my face.

"Oof!" I gasped as the impact sent air rushing out of my lungs.

"Sorry Robyn, didn't mean to scare you." Cody apologised as I heaved my arm up, holding out my hand so he could help pull me up.

"Oh it's no problem Cody. So what's up?" I asked him once I was on my feet. I turned away from him to head to the trays full of chalk and water respectively. My feet went into the water tray to clean off any remaining chalk that was used for grip.

"Nothing really. I was just thinking about how cool it is you get to work with alien robots everyday. Don't you find it amazing?" he asked me, leaning against the beam I had just been on. I stepped out of the tray and onto a towel next to it, rubbing my feet all over it.

"Well I wouldn't know about that now would I? I don't have a partner." I corrected him, grabbing my mint green beach skirt from the shelf nearby so I was a bit more decent. Leotards weren't exactly the most covering.

"But they're still out in the field with you." he pointed out.

"God you do not want to let this go do you? Why do you want me to say we're partners? Chase has Charlie, Boulder has Graham, Heatwave has Kade and Blades has Dani. End of story, nothing else, zip zilch nada." I snapped at him, trying not to completely lose my cool. "None of them are my partner and that's how I want it to be."

"But why don't you want a partner?"

"I may tell you when you're older." I said heading for the elevator. Now is about the time I'd go on patrol to clear my head but I very well can't do that while my bike's with Phillipa.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
About half an hour later, Cody had convinced me to help the bots and his siblings bond so mission would go better and honestly it wasn't going very well. In one corner we had Dani being persistant on flying with a partner who was scared of heights, in another we had Boulder and Graham failing to play a broken pinball machine and in the fine one we had Kade and Heatwave just sitting there in silence. Yep, a lot of bonding was going on.

"That's it, this isn't working. What else ya got?" I asked Cody and Chase who were watching in dismay at the events unfolding.

"Um..." Cody thought aloud. As if an angel was descending upon us all, the alarm went off, signalling an emergency, sparing us all from the awkwardness.

"We have a situation on Maine and Park: sewer's overflowing," Charlie told us over the video comm.

"Have you tried calling a plumber?" "Then call a plumber." Dani and I both said at the same time making both of us smile at each other.

"With lava." Charlie finished making my blood run cold. "This could get ugly really fast. I need the whole team out here."

"Charlie, I can't. I don't have a ride." I tried explaining to him as everyone else went to their stations.

"You've got four, pick one. Cody get on the command centre. Your siblings are going to need help communicating with their bots." Charlie told him.

"B-But Charlie. I can't. You know why. I'm sorry I really can't." I shivered, scared at what I may have to do.

"Robyn, go with Kade and Heatwave. They're gonna let you out just before the emergency and you can stay away from it all helping civilians to safety. No lava, no nothing. Can you do that?" he asked me gently.

"I-I think I c-can." I chattered, fear building up in me making my teeth chatter loudly. Luckily I changed back into uniform from my gymnastics earlier so I didn't have to worry about going around in a skirt. I ran up to the garage where the bots were just heading out.

"Heatwave hold up!" I shouted, making him halt. "Charlie told me to go with you guys and for you to let me out just before the scene to help the civilians." I explained briefly to him seeing as we didn't have much time. He opened the driver side door.

"Get in." he responded. Nodding, I clambered in and slid my seatbelt on as he pull out of the firehouse, siren blaring. I looked to my right to find no Kade.

"Where's Kade? I thought he was with you?" I asked Heatwave who was now on the monitor.

"So did I, but apparently he doesn't need a 'machine' to help him." he growled.

"Give him some time Heatwave. He'll come around eventually. Everyone does." I told him. The rest of the ride was in silence until we reached just before the emergency site.

"You get out here Robyn." he instructed me, unclicking my seatbelt and opening my door.

"Thanks Heatwave. And be careful. Last thing I want is to have to yell at you." I joked. "But please do be careful." I told him as I jumped down. I didn't get a response as he closed the door and zoomed off. Immediately I saw people around here.

"Alright everyone, please make your way away from Maine and Park. Get as far away as you can and stay away from the sewers!" I shouted over the street noise and mass hysteria down the road. Those who could hear me followed my instructions and started running in the opposite direction. Normally I'd tell them to remain calm but there's lava at the end of the road so I wasn't going to hold it against them. Suddenly, a woman in her early thirties ran up to me.

"Please, my son! He went down the road to get his ball a few minutes ago and he hasn't come back! Please save him!" she pleaded, tears rolling down her alreadt ear stained face.

"I will I promise." I shouted over all the yelling around us. "Stay here!" I told her, grabbing her arm quickly for emphasis before releasing it so I could run down towards the scene from hell where her son was. When I got there I could feel my fear constricting me in my movement. What the hell was I doing coming here? I was gonna die! Lava was spewing from all the sewer grates and the team was trying to block it up. There was a lot of smoke in the air from the lava and it made it a little harder to breathe. Examining my surroundings, I found a small boy no older than six with a ball in his hand near the lava. Running, I reached him, grabbed his arm and started directing him to safety.

"Go, your mother's at the end of the road. Do not stop running." I ordered him. He nodded and started running as fast as his little legs would carry him.

"Robyn what the hell are you doing here?" Charlie yelled over the noise as he came over to me.

"There was a little boy! I was doing my job!" I told him over all the ruckus.

"Okay." he said before turning to everyone else. "Alright team, I just got off the comm with Cody. He says we can stop this lava but we need to erupt a volcano to do it." Charlie informed us.

"And that's the safest option?" Bladeds asked once he'd transformed and let Dani out.

"It's the only option." Charlie corrected him. "I won't lie, things might get hairy. If the volcano goes off too fast we could get caught in the lava." he explained making my breath hitch in fear. Not more lava. "I'll understand if you don't want to be part of this mission. Griffin Rock isn't your home." Charlie told the bots.

"If you go, we go." Heatwave answered for all of them.

"You'd do that for them?" I asked him.

"It's what we'd do for all of you." he corrected me making me smile.

"That's what being partners means." Boulder added, contributing to my smile. Maybe I was partners with all of them after all.

"Wherever there is an emergency there are rescue bots ready to save, serve and protect." Chase continued.

"We didn't get the chance to save our home. We're not going to let you lose yours." Blades finished.

"Glad to have you on board." Charlie thanked them. "But for this plan to succeed we'll all have to put aside our differences and work together like real partners. Understood?" We all nodded.

"I'll go with you Charlie." I told him as all the bots transformed.

"Alright Robyn." he agreed. We both climbed into Chase and set off for the campsite.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After we'd solved our lava problem, it seemed the universe just wanted to make today even harder for us. The lava decided to stream off somewhere other than where it was intended and headed straight for the firehouse where Cody was. Heatwave and Kade were cutting it off while the rest of us were trying to stop the lava from outside.

"Hey Dani, isn't there a water tower just on the other side of the volcano? Can you reach it?" I asked her over the comm, remembering from when we used to go hiking over there.

"I'll see what I can do." Dani said.

"What else can we do?" I asked Charlie.

"Now we go to firehouse and get to Cody." he replied. "Transform Chase." he instructed Chase. Chase complied and we both headed off to the firehouse  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once we reached the firehouse we sped (although Chase would deny it) into the bunker to see Kade Heatwave and Cody all in there and perfectly fine.

"Oh thank god you're all okay." I exclaimed, relieved everyone was safe. The other were just behind us before so they would only be about a minute after us.

"I still don't understand what happened. Why is everyone so upset?" Cody asked the room bewildered.

"We'll fill you in tomorrow son." Charlie told his youngest.

"Okay dad. I'm gonna head to bed now. I'll see you all tomorrow. Night!" Cody called out as the elevator closed.

"Night Cody." we called back.

"Can't believe I'm saying this but Cody's got the right idea. I'm going to my room. Later." and with that, Kade was gone as well.

"You should go to bed too Robyn. With all you've had to face today you'll need it. I'm proud of you for what you did." Charlie told me. "I'll wait up for the others. You go upstairs." he told me. I nodded.

"Just one second though." I told him before going over to where the bots normally rest and went to where Heatwave was in his vehicle mode. "Are you asleep Heatwave?" I asked him quietly.

"No." he replied gruffly.

"Well I just want to say thank you for risking your life to protect the family. Not many people would've done that for people they don't know too well. So… thanks." I thanked him.

"Any one of us would've done it. It's why we're rescue bots." he replied stiffly.

"Well whether it was because you care or it was just you doing your job, thank you and I owe you one." I told him.

"You owe me one what?" he asked, confusion now obvious in his voice.

"Oh, it's a human expression." I yawned. "It means I owe you a favour." I explained, smiling tiredly.

"You should go recharge Robyn. It's been a long day." he told me.

"Okay. Recharge well Heatwave." I patted his door before heading towards the elevator. Once I was in the doors started closing however just before they could, a hand shot inside to block them and forced them to open again. It was Graham. He stepped inside and the doors closed once again.

"Graham." I acknowledged him curtly.

"Robyn… I'm sorry." he apologised out of the blue.

"What?" I exclaimed in disbelief.

"I shouldn't have said what I said seeing as I know what you've been through. I was just taking my frustration out on things around me which happened to be you. Can you forgive me?" he asked me. I looked at him for a few seconds, looking him up and down to see if he was sincere or not. When I saw no signs of deceit, I sighed in defeat.

"Yeah we're good." I smiled faintly. "It's not like I can hold grudges for more than a few days and you didn't even mean it anyway."

"I'm glad we're okay." Graham said as the doors opened and we stepped into the kitchen.

"Me too. I'm gonna head up to bed. I'll see you tomorrow yeah?"

"Yeah. Night Robyn." he smiled before I ran up the stairs two at a time and fled to my room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
"I told you I'd drop it off didn't I? You didn't have to walk here to get it." Phillipa scolded me as I finished picking up my bike from her garage.

"Well I didn't want to trouble you more than I already have. It's obvious you work too hard to fix the stuff I break so the least I can do is 'pick up in store'." I told her. "Besides, the team's doing some redecorating in the bunker and no one's allowed to see it yet. It's a surprise for everyone." I explained to her.

"Wait, if no one can see it, how are the Burns' working on it?" she asked me, tilting her head in a confused manner. Scrap. Scrap scrap scrap.

"Uh… it's only Charlie and Cody working on it. The rest of the team… are doing their own thing?" I lied.

"Uh huh." Phillipa replied sarcastically. "What aren't you telling me Robyn?"

"Nothing!" I responded all too quickly before mentally slapping myself. "I'm not not telling you anything! Really." I promised her. Once again with the lies.

"I thought we told each other everything." Phillipa stated.

"Pip… I, it's not that I don't trust you. It's just some personal stuff I want to keep private for now. I'm asking you as your friend to drop it for now." I insisted, swinging my leg over the bike to I was seated comfortably.

"Okay. That was a low blow y'know?, 'asking as your friend'. But I'll leave it for now and you better tell me what it is soon." Phillipa caved. "I'll see you later." she waved as I pulled my helmet on and pulled out into the road.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I pulled up inside the firehouse, Cody, Dani, Kade and Graham were coming out the elevator. "Robyn, you've gotta come down and check out the bunker!" Cody announced.  
"Uh, yeah sure." I complied, following them back into the elevator and went down into the bunker below us. When the doors opened, I recognised the logo on the bots was now plastered on the wall above where they were standing with Charlie. He must have helped them with the painting tools because last time I checked we didn't have autobot sized paintbrushes.

"I mean, this is their home now too, right?" Cody asked us.

"...It sure looks that way." Kade smiled, giving him a side hug.

"So what does that logo actually mean?" I asked the bots.

"The insignia on the inside symbolises the autobot faction." Chase informed us.

"And the rings on the outside represent our rank as rescue bots." Heatwave added.

"Cool."


	3. Adopted

"I'm telling you all now, Annie is one of the most amazing films of all time! It's a must see you're gonna love it!" I told the bots as we were all in the bunker, the TV already set up. Blades, Boulder and Heatwave were on the bot sized sofa left to right while Chase was on the floor just to the left of Blades. I'd already brought provisions and dragged most of my bedding downstairs including my pillows, my duvet and my plushie in the form of Psyduck from pokemon. All of these had accumulated by Heatwave's end of the sofa on the floor where I would be seated for the film. I myself was wearing my button up light blue long sleeved flannel pyjama shirt and matching full length bottoms. Pink fluffy socks covered my feet keeping them insulated as the bunker got pretty cold so late in the evening. It was around 9pm now so the film was going to end at about 11pm.

"I loved this film growing up." I added as I set the disc successfully in the DVD player and hit play. Quickly I retreated back to the warmth of my bedding and snuggled in as the company logos were playing.

"So why are we watching this?" Blades asked me.

"Because I need to watch it for my gymnastics meet and you need to learn about earth culture. This is a good part of earth culture." I explained matter-of-factly.

"I already watch plenty of TV!" Blades exclaimed, raising his voice in his normal bubbly manner.

"And look where that's gotten you." I heard Heatwave grumble under his breathe. Did these guys even breathe? I mean, did they need oxygen as well or did it not really bother them, what atmosphere they're in? Meh, I'll ask them another time.

"What is this production about Robyn?" Chase asked me from his spot on the floor, tearing my attention away from the credits during the intro.

"Well, a girl called Annie is in foster care with a load of other children to a mean lady but goes to live with a really wealthy man. That's all I can really reveal without giving away spoilers." I smiled as I briefed them all on the synopsis of the film.

"What's foster care?" Boulder asked, voicing what the other three were thinking as well.

"Whadd'ya mean 'what's foster care'? Of course you know what foster care is. Our species aren't that different. You must've had foster systems on your planet." I shrugged them off, not believing they didn't know what foster care was.

"We didn't." Heatwave stated. The small smile on my face faded as I grabbed the remote and paused it. Dropping the remote back into my lap I turned to look at them all, leaning on Heatwave inner shin.

"Well um, foster care is a system where if for some reason the parents of someone under 18 can no longer look after their child or children then the kids are sent to live with someone called a foster carer for however long the parent needs." I started to explain to them, all of them listening intently.

"But if the creator was unable to look after their offspring then why did they decide to take on that responsibility?" Chase inquired.

"It can be really complicated sometimes and at times isn't the fault of the, creators?, Anyway, one reason could be that the creators are going through a financial… drought if you will and need some time to straighten things out. Some of the more unpleasant cases are that the creators may be abusing the children. In that case, some children can even be adopted by other adults." I informed them.

"That's barbaric! How could creators do that to sparklings or younglings!?" Boulder seemed pretty upset and mad about what I told him. "On Cybertron, sparklings are treated so highly that even thinking about harming one or putting one in harms way can be frowned upon by all Cybertronians." he exclaimed, stress in his voice.

"Woah big guy, it's not that common. Most of the time it doesn't happen and a majority of the time the children receive help and whatever else they need." I tried to console the big green bot. My vision scanned over the other three bots who looked as equally distressed as the next.

"...What," Heatwave paused, seeming to be thinking over his words. "What happens to the minority who don't get help?" he asked quietly. The tension in the bunker was so high that you could practically see the awkwardness.

"They um, they may become depressed, or isolated from society. In some of the more severe, but not the least common cases, they may choose to end their own life. If they don't, it may take them years to recover, if they ever do." I replied solemnly, staring at my hands in my lap, in shame at how the people of my world behaved. We sat in silence for a while.

"You guys really don't have child abuse on your planet? I'd have loved to live there."

"It still happened. But no where near to the scale it does on your planet. You were more likely to drift off into space because you jumped too high off a ramp than even pass a victim of youngling abuse." Heatwave commented from above me.

"I like those odds. Your kind's view of children were so great. Makes me wish my kind held the same morals." I mentioned.

"Maybe we should just watch the movie now." Blades suggested.

"Yeah, it'll take our minds off this more depressing topic." I agreed with him, grabbing the remote. "Everyone good?" a mixture of 'fine's' and 'yeah's' were my response. Satisfied with their emotional state, I played the movie once again. "Just let me know if you need me to stop it." I told them, snuggling into my blanket.

Part way through the film, I felt mymself struggling to keep sitting upright without causing major strain in my back. I could lean back against the sofa but I would have to bumshuffle all the way back and that would mess up the way I'd placed my blankets and pillow. Looking around, I noticed that Heatwave's left leg was the closest thing to me so I grabbed my pillow from underneath me and leant it against the inner part of his leg, drawing his attention to me.

"What are you doing?" he looked down at me. I stopped organising my blankets to look up at him.

"My back hurts." I told him plainly as if it was a dumb question, which to me it was.

"And?" he asked again with a roll of his eyes… optics.

"And I need something to lean on and your leg was the closest thing. So get used to it." I answered before snuggling up to him like a cat would, nuzzling my head until I was comfy. "You're my new pillow." I told him. My pillow was mainly for my back so my head was against the red metal of his leg which was actually… warm? There was a faint humming underneath that was quite soothing. Like an electric blanket or hot water bottle.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once the film finished it was quite late, getting close to midnight. Reluctantly I got up from my spot on Heatwave's leg and turned on the lights which had been off the whole time. Honestly, I was getting close to being ready to drop off but I wanted to stay up with the bots just slightly longer.

"How'd you guys find it? It wasn't too much was it?"

"I prefer comedy."

"Action is my personal preference, however this film was enjoyable."

"I liked it, but so far romance movies are my favourite."

"Next time we're watching a war film." were my responses.

"Alright then, I'll try and avoid films which are solely musicals from here on out. But I can't promise anything seeing as I do live for movies with songs in them." I teased them, shuffling back over in my slipper socks. "Do any of you have any questions about what was in the film?" I asked them.

"Do humans normally break out into song in their everyday lives? Because I haven't heard any music on patrols." Chase asked.

"No." I laughed. "It's just a way films help get the characters' emotions across to the audience. Anything else?" I replied.

"What happened when the man mentioned adopting Annie? I don't get it." Blades asked.

"You guys don't have adoption either?" I asked him, only to be met with head shakes.

"Well, in some cases where a child is in foster care or is in an orphanage, another couple or single adult can legally take in that child and treat it like one of it's own children. That child is essentially put into another family." I explained to them all.

"Has anyone you know been adopted?" Boulder asked me.

"Yeah. You're looking at her." I stated, leaving the bots in silence for a few seconds, looking at each other then back at me.

"You're adopted? But you're a Burns." Boulder exclaimed.

"Actually I'm a Burns-Anderson. Anderson being my original surname. I thought you guys actually knew. Cody introduced me as his adopted sister after all. Thought it'd be less of a shock for you." I frowned in confusion.

"We thought it was some family custom, but we didn't actually know what it meant." Boulder explained to me.

"Huh. I see."

"Why is it you weren't placed in foster care so your parents could reclaim you once they were in a stable way of life?" Chase inquired.

"Because no matter what happens, my parents can't take care of me anymore. SO I had to go with a different family."

"Why?" Blades pressed.

"'Cause they're dead." I stated simply.

"Oh Robyn, that's sad." Boulder said sorrowfully.

"What happened?" Heatwave asked, speaking for the first time in a while.

"They died, Charlie took me in. Simple as." I replied, almost robotic. It's what I told everyone who asked about it. "I don't really like talking about it. So if you don't mind, I'm just gonna sleep here tonight." I told them, plonking my pillow on the floor before shuffling down so my head rested on it. I turned away from them and closed my eyes, trying not to think about that night from so many years ago.


	4. Hotshots Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part I of episode 3 - Hotshots.

I don't even have an excuse for how late this is. So you can just read it and I'll have the second part up as fast as I can.

 

Disclaimer: I don't own rescue bots

 

"I'm just saying, if you can make a mixture of blueberry, strawberry and avocado then you can do raspberry and kiwi. This doesn't even taste good!" Robyn complained about her unsatisfactory drink while sitting in a booth with her friend Phillipa who sat across from her, downing her mocktail as if it was an addiction.

"You're the one who bought it." she pointed out, glancing over at the off-purple-y coloured drink that was in the rescuer's hand.

"Oh shut up. It's not my fault they don't do decent drinks here. Besides, it's not like there's a sign saying 'Don't buy this smoothie, it tastes really bad'" she argued, dumping it in the bin behind her seat. "What a waste of £1.49." she stated, depressed about not having a drink anymore.

"I'm the one who bought it though!" Phillipa exclaimed in disbelief. "It wasn't your £1.49."

"Why did you even pay again? I'm meant to be taking you out as a treat. You don't pay for your own treats." Robyn asked rhetorically, taking the money out of her wallet which was kept in her back pocket.

"Normally I'd put up a big fuss about not taking your money, but I can't be bothered with that so I'll sneak it in your pocket next time you're at the shop." Phillipa laughed, taking the money off her and putting it away.

"Oh it was so funny I forgot to laugh." Robyn smirked. "We never do this anymore. It's always me coming over because something's wrong with my ride. I miss this. I especially miss seeing you out of overalls." she glanced over to admire her friend's white, short sleeved summer dress with massive blue flowers all over it.

"What can I say? I love dresses but I don't want them ruined with my blowtorch." Phillipa laughed. "Besides, I never see you out of uniform anymore. You on duty now? Kinda skiving aint'cha?" she joked.

"I'm not on until patrol tonight. But even so, if there is an emergency, I don't want to show up in a skirt since I wouldn't be able to do my job. Plus, the uniform makes me look intimidating." Robyn defended herself.

"Whatever you say." Phillipa abandoned the use of a straw and started drinking the final remnants of her drink from the glass. Suddenly, said rescuer's comm link sounded. "Speak of the devil."

"Doc Greene's solar powered car is on a rampage. All available units to converge on Old Canyon Road." Charlie's voice sounded over the comm link's speaker.

"I can never catch a break! Later Pip, I've got a car to catch!" she said, sliding out of the booth and running out the parlour.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So what's the dealio with this carjack?" Robyn asked over the comm., trying to figure out how this emergency had occurred.

"The brakes aren't working and neither is the steering." Charlie explained briefly. "We need to figure out how to stop the car."

"Have you tried popping the tyres yet?" she asked.

"Yes. And it has been proven ineffective." Chase replied.

"Damn, there goes my only idea." she sighed in frustration, failing to see how she could be of any use in this situation if the tyres couldn't be popped. It was her go-to technique in car chases to get them to slow down or stop.

"May as well go home Rob." Kade stated arrogantly. "Only those with a bot are of any use here."

"Shut up Kade, and don't call me that!" she retorted angrily.

"You don't need a bot as a partner to get the job done, Kade." Charlie said disapprovingly at his oldest son's behaviour. Soon enough, Chase and Charlie had been able to stop Doc Greene from going over the abandoned bridge on Old Canyon Road. Robyn pulled up alongside them seconds later, the rest of the team still quite far behind.

"The Doc okay?" she called out to Charlie as she hopped off her motorbike and pulling off her helmet, leaving her hair completely dishevelled as she'd been wearing it in a bun and now strands had come loose or plain falling out.

"He's fine Robyn." Charlie replied to her. "It's alright now Doc. You can uh, let go of the wheel now." he told Doc who reluctantly removed his hands from the steering wheel, finger grooves clearly evident in the wheel's material.

"Well it seems this test run wasn't exactly the best, was it Doc?" Robyn teased gently as she approached the window.  
"On the contrary, young Anderson. I would consider that a very successful test run, apart from the fact the brakes didn't work, or the steering." Doc defended himself, seemingly quite proud of his 'accomplishment'.

"Uh yeah." Charlie said. "Do you need a lift back to the lab, Doc?" he offered.

"No thank you. I think I'll walk from here. Give me some time to come up with new ideas!" Doc declined politely.

"Oh joy." Robyn said sarcastically. "I'm gonna head back to the firehouse Charlie. I'll see you there."

"Alright Robyn. Drive safely."

"Don't I always?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

"An out of control vehicle. An unsuspecting public. Disaster in the making!" Huxley announced in front of the firehouse to the recording camera as Robyn pulled up on her motorbike. The rest of the Burns' save Charlie and Cody were out front too, waiting for their interview.

"Great." she mumbled under her breath, pulling her helmet off and undoing her bun, releasing her hair from its weak confines.

"How did our brave family of heroes save the day? Kade Burns?" he asked the redhead.

"Guts." he answered arrogantly. "That's what it takes to stare down a runaway car with nothing but a ladder." Rolling her eyes, Robyn slowly pulled up her ride in the garage before closing all doors within the camera's reach so she could go down into the bunker where the bots were watching the live interview on the television.

"You guys are seriously watching this?" she asked in disbelief as she slid down the firepole. "Huxley's more reliable as a laugh than the actual legitimate news. The weather channel is probably more truthful than him. And they said it was meant to snow last week!" she exclaimed.

"I'm sure since he's talking to your family, it'll be more than a plausible story." Boulder tried to reassure her. She didn't even bother attempting to correct him when he called them her 'family', choosing instead to merely roll her eyes once again.

"Why aren't you having an interview too? Passing up the chance to be famous!?" Blades asked her.

"Rather be down here with you guys. Plus, I didn't join the Burns' family business to be on TV. That's a job for celebrities." she explained. "I'd rather stay in the back where no one can see me."

"Graham?" Huxley asked his opinion.

"Um, well in order to create a makeshift tyre hazard, I had to calculate the distance between-" he started explaining, only to loose Huxley's interest and he moved onto Dani.

"And how did you contribute Dani?"

"Me? I-" she started.

"Dani keeps an eye on everything from the sky." Kade cut her off. "I tell you, we couldn't do out job without our little sis! Well, probably could." he laughed. With that, Dani walked off screen, looking crestfallen.

"And what of your adopted sister – Robyn?" Huxley asked Kade, seeing as he was so eager to answer any and all questions with enthusiasm.

"Oh this I gotta hear." Robyn sighed, turning up the volume on the TV a bit more so it was clearer.

"Oh she's like the family's own cheerleader." Kade replied immediately. Her eyebrows quickly raised up in a 'did-you-say-what-I-think-you-just-said?' type of way. "Yeah, always rooting for us in the field."

"D-did he just…?" she stammered, trying to comprehend what her adopted brother was saying about her.

"I think he did." Heatwave finished for her.

"But then again, when she's the only one without a bot to help her with her job, it's no wonder she isn't at the top of her game." he continued.

"Oh hell no!" she exclaimed loudly, her voice going up into the top of her head so it came out in falsetto.

"Yep, Kade believes that she'd be a lot better if she had a bot with her instead of a flimsy tricycle." he finished, going on to talk about himself in the third person. As if his head couldn't get any bigger.

"Well viewers, you heard it here first. Rescuer Robyn seems to be falling behind in the race for top dog! 'Til next time!" The interview was then over and Huxley's show ended, leaving Robyn and the bots in silence for a few seconds. Some too shocked, and some too angry to say anything.

"He did not just diss my ride, my job and my dignity!" she shouted in disbelief after she was able to finally trust her voice enough so her first words weren't cusses. "All in four sentences!" she quickly snapped the bobble on her wrist in anger which she'd been fiddling with for the past few minutes.

"I didn't even think he was that much of an imbecile." Heatwave commented. "Are you okay Robyn?" he asked in concern for the human he had probably grown the closest to.

"I'm going to find him." she stated calmly, heading for the elevator, avoiding the question altogether.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I'm going to kill him." she spoke quietly, her eyes raging with a fire the bots had never seen before. With that, the doors closed, leaving the bots alone.

"I don't blame her. I know I'd be upset if someone spoke about me like that on TV." Boulder stated, saving them from an awkward silence.

"It seems Heatwave," Case started, gaining said firebot's attention. "That by the time Robyn is finished with her adopted brother, you will be in need of a new partner." he deduced, his gaze still fixed on where the fiery female had made her exit.

Once Robyn left the elevator, all hell broke loose in the firehouse.

"You," Robyn called out, making Kade turn around, only to be sent the other way with the brute force the furious blonde punched him in the face with. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked rhetorically in the kitchen where Kade, Cody and Graham were.

"Whoa Robyn. What's wrong with you? What was that for?" Kade responded, as if he hadn't done anything wrong since the day he was born.

"What was that for? How about roasting me on live TV!? Huh? Saying I needed a bot to do my job right? Calling me your cheerleader?" she yelled, listing them off her fingers. "Well I'm sorry I don't have an alien helping me all the time. But I guess that just proves that I'm good enough to do my job with no help what-so-ever." she continued. "If I was able to keep up with the speed demons around here before the bots arrived, then I can sure as hell do it now. You sick, ignorant, conceited son of a- Cody cover your ears!"

"Robyn, don't you think you're over reacting just a little bit?" Graham tried to calm her down, putting a hand on her shoulder for emphasis.

"No!" she countered, batting him off. "I believe my reaction is completely justified. And the bots think so too. You need to watch what you say on camera. Because you can't take it back once it's out there." she warned him before storming off, up to her room. Once the door was shut, she grabbed her laptop to check her emails.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later on in the day, the bots, Cody and Robyn were all outside on the basketball courts, the bots cleaning up from their patrols while Robyn was getting ready to head out on hers. "So, you guys have any plans for tonight? Marathon? Training? What?" she asked as she finished polishing the visor on the front of her bike.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but there's a marathon of 'Cupcake Hoarders' on tonight so I'm gonna be doing that." Blades announced.

"No you're not. That show is garbage." Heatwave denied him.

"If you want to watch a show about cake, then you should watch the Great British Bake-Off. My friend in the UK introduced it to me." Robyn added.

"I will be testing Boulder and Heatwave on their police 10-codes." Chase answered.

"And I'll be pretending to listen." Heatwave added before looking back to Boulder and spraying him with his water cannons. "If there's mud, you know Boulder's gonna roll right through it." he muttered.

"I'm part tractor. It's what I do." Boulder defended himself.

"I believe there must be a more efficient way to halt a runaway car than, skiing behind it." Chase stated as he buffed out the scratches from under his feet.

"Yikes, that must have hurt." Robyn winced.  
"There sure is." Cody spoke up for the first time in a while. "Keeping Doc Greene out of the driver's seat." he joked, picking up a soapy brush and going to clean Boulder.

"Gotta love the Doc, keeps us busy." he commented.

"Some of us." Blades sighed sadly. "Some only watch from the sky." he continued which compelled Cody to try and cheer him up at the prospect of their next rescue being in the air. While all this went on, Robyn ignites her engine, only for it to stutter and shut itself down again.

"What the…?" she murmured to herself as she yanked her helmet off once again. Firmly tapping the speedometer to see if there was any faulty readings, she noticed that the fuel meter was in the red zone. "Bloody fantastic. Hey guys, I know you all have your own things to do tonight but my bike won't be starting until I tow it to the gas station in town tomorrow, so do one of you mind coming on patrol with me?" she almost begged, not wanting to have to chase down people on two legs.

"I'd love to help you Robyn, but I don't have the best vehicle mode if you want to catch someone who's speeding. And I can't miss Chase's tes-" Boulder started explaining, seeming meaningfully apologetic. However the matter was swiftly resolved when Heatwave quickly transformed to vehicle mode, eager to get out of Chase's never ending police code exams. Grinning, Robyn quickly jumped up into the driver's seat.

"I was thinking going around town since it's too dangerous to be going up the mountains this late without more of the team. That sound alright with you?" she asked as they pulled out of the firehouse.

"Sure."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later on in the night, not long before they were due to head back, Robyn noticed how quiet Heatwave seemed to be compared to the usual grumpy silence he had going on and finally decided to call him out on it.

"Are you okay Heatwave? I mean, you're usually a mixture of quiet and sarcasm but tonight you've just… been a little off. S'there anything bothering you?" she confronted him finally.

"It's not your problem Robyn." he answered shortly, reluctant to share any information with her which upset her more than she cared to admit.

"Oh come on. There is something bothering you then. Come on… cabin confidentiality – whatever you say to me in here will not be repeated to anyone else." she pressed, hoping to help him by being someone he could talk to. Knowing a fair bit about bottling up feelings, she knew how devastating it could be when all those feelings eventually got to the surface and just exploded. Sighing, he finally faced her in the little screen on the dashboard.

"That interview Kade did." he confided, unable to help the irritation in his voice when he mentioned his partner.

"Ah. I see. What bothered you so much?"

"None of us are appreciated. I was the one risking hook and ladder in the rescue today and Kade took all the credit. Once again." he explained sourly.

"Okay. I kinda get it." Robyn responded. "You don't really feel part of a team do you? More like a side-kick or something. Not that you are." she quickly added, not wanting to offend him accidentally and him stop talking to her as a result.

"Exactly. Your brother doesn't seem to understand that just because we're made of metal, doesn't mean we're gadgets to be used."

"He's not my brother. Furthest thing from it at the moment." Robyn corrected him, still mad about what he said about her on TV. "But just because you don't get praised individually, it doesn't mean you aren't appreciated." she tried to get him to see reason.

"Easy for you to say. You can be thanked by everyone you save. They just think we're machines and don't take a second glance at us." Heatwave argued. Robyn frowned, trying to think of a way to prove to him that he was worthwhile.

"Alright change of plans, we're finishing patrol a little early. I gotta show you something. Let me drive." she announced, strapping in and pulled out into traffic.

"Where are you taking us?" Heatwave asked, surprisingly relinquishing control to the girl in his cabin.

"To prove a point."

****time skip***

"Alright Robyn, I'll bite." Heatwave said as the blonde unlocked the back door to the museum which was more of a massive garage door since it was where deliveries were also made. "What are we doing at the museum of science and technology?"

"Well since you don't take my word that you're appreciated, I thought science could convince you." she explained. "Now come on! The lights are off so we'll need your headlights." she ran ahead excitedly, making sure to disable the burglar alarms before going into the publicly accessible area of the museum. Obviously no one was there since it was so late at night and the museum was actually closed. "I called Jerry on the way over here and told him to go on a break until eleven. We have 20 minutes to do what we need to and get you out of here without being seen by him." she explained as she lead him to the animal habitat area of the science section of the museum.

"Habitats? Why do we need to go here?" Heatwave was confused. Robyn merely walked over to a hanging tarp and gave it a firm tug, but nothing happened.

"Ugh. Don't suppose you could lift this off could you?" she asked the much-taller-than-her bot. The tarp was soon removed to reveal a massive ant farm with glow in the dark sand. "Kill your lights Heatwave and you'll see what I was telling you about." he told him, not looking away from the ant farm. His headlights were shut off and the sand was glowing a neon green with many tunnels spreading all across the glass frame.

"Ants do their best work in a dark enironment, which is why the museum normally keeps the tarp over them. People have to put their heads under the tarp if they want to watch the magic happen." she explained to him nonchalantly.

"We came here to look at some tiny ants?" Heatwave asked in a displeased tone. She turned to face him.

"Look, you've been out in space yeah? Seen how small we all are in the works of the entire universe right?" she asked him, already knowing what the answer was.

"Yeah. So?" he replied.

"So, what I'm trying to say is that the universe, heck the galaxy, is a big place and what we do everyday is very minuscule in the massive overview." she continued.

"Is this supposed to be making me feel better? Because it's not." Heatwave interrupted.

"That's because I haven't made my point yet. If you stopped interrupting I'd get there a little faster." she snipped, not meaning it in a harsh way. "What I'm trying to say is, you could think of everyone on the team as being one ant. In a colony of ants, there are thousands upon thousands of workers who all do different jobs." she explained. "And when there are so many ants doing so many different jobs, it's difficult to praise each ant for doing their job to the best of their ability. But they still keep doing those jobs because they know that even though they aren't called out for it and given a medal or something like that, the rest of the colony appreciates them. You see what I'm getting at?" she finished with a question, trying to elicit another response from him, not wanting to be the only one who carried the conversation.

"Yeah, I get it. Thanks Robyn. It just seems a little difficult to be thought of as being appreciated when my ride along makes my interior all sticky with the food he eats."

"Ewwww! So that's what that was on your steering wheel! And your door… and your seat. Dear God!" Robyn grimaced. "...Maybe we should walk back. The firehouse isn't too far and no one's really out this late anyway."

"Good idea."

 

Hope you enjoyed it.


	5. Hotshots Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robyn opens up to Cody and makes a big decision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait. Please let me know what you think of this chapter! Try and predict Robyn's parent's cause of death.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Mid-morning had rolled around by the time Robyn finally dragged her half dead body out of bed and into the shower. She normally showered in the evenings but had been so tired last night she'd collapsed on her bed and had been out like a light. Not only had she skipped her shower, but with her phone being at home during her patrol, she'd missed numerous calls and text from Phillipa who expressed concern after she didn't hear back from her after she'd left their get together so quickly. So after she had had her wake up call under the steaming jets of water, she send a quick 'A-OK' before changing into a black long sleeved leotard with dark blue covering the arms, shoulders and neckline, large silver swirls blending the two colours together where they joined. Black shorts were thrown on top and trainer socks and trainers slid onto her feet before running downstairs to get two oranges and a bottle of water so she could go down to the bunker and use the apparatus. In the kitchen, Cody, Charlie and Kade were already helping themselves to breakfast. The two adults were in uniform, but Robyn had already been given the all-clear to be off for the morning from Charlie to work on routines.

She planned to go on the balance beam for about half an hour before using the rings for ten minutes then finishing off with the mats for 40 minutes with another ten minutes for a cool down. This would all be followed by another shower and lunch.

"What you up to today Cody?" Robyn asked the younger boy as she started peeling one of her oranges.

"Nothing much. I'll probably see if Frankie wants to go to the Hall of Inspiration or the museum. You want to come with?" he offered.

"Nah. I went to the museum last night." she replied as she popped an orange slice into her mouth, chewing happily.

"What were you doing at the museum last night?" Charlie asked surprised at his youngest daughter's late night activities.

"Just showing Heatwave something. Chill, we weren't seen and nothing got broken." she reassured him. As she finished speaking, drilling sounds started filling the room. "The heck is that?" she asked aloud.

"Sounds like it's coming from the garage." Charlie commented.

"Want to go check it out?" Cody asked, hoping she would say yes.

"Sure. Gotta make sure it stops before I start practising." she shrugged. She took her fruit with her since despite knowing Kade would never touch anything that resembled something healthy, she wouldn't put it past him to use it as a ball or other crazy use. The two youngest slid down the fireman pole, Robyn going one handed, into the garage where they could see the bots all gathered around Blades who was in helicopter mode and Dani working on something or other underneath him.

"Hey Dani, what are you doing?" Cody asked her as they made their way over to the pilot.

"Cody I beg of you, talk some sense into your sister, please!" Blades begged him.

"Relax Blades, you're looking good." Dani reassured him. But even Robyn knew that was a lie.

"Uh, Dani did you actually get Blades' consent to mess about with his… is body the right term or…?" Robyn interrogated her adoptive sister, crossing her arms while still being cautious of the orange in her right hand.

"The correct term is bipedal mode. When we are in vehicle mode, it is called our alternate, or alt, mode." Chase informed her. She thanked him.

"You don't even notice it. As long as you don't fly over any power lines." Heatwave mocked the aerial bot.

"Actually that is sound advice." Chase added, not realising that he wasn't actually giving any advice.

"Well Dani, it isn't very nice of you to make modifications to Blades' alt mode," Robyn started, looking at Chase for confirmation that she was using the right term. He nodded. "without making sure he's happy with it first."

"What even is it anyway?" Cody asked.

"A scoop claw." Dani answered, ignoring Robyn. "And it's going to put me and Blades into the action."

"There's no way of talking you out of this, is there?" Robyn asked. But she feared she already knew the answer to her question.

"Nope. Hand me the remote please Cody."

"I can do it Dani." he replied.

"Oh, I don't know. It's kinda complicated." she said, taking the remote off him and pressing a button.

"Yeah. It really looked like you were straining yourself with that." Robyn rolled her eyes.

"I just wanted it done right, guys." she defended. "Alright Blades, let's see what it looks like when you transform." she requested.

"Nobody laugh." he transformed. Even Robyn couldn't deny that she found it slightly amusing, but knew better than to show it and upset one of her friends.

"It looks nice Blades." she tried, wincing as she spoke. It really did look bad.

"Oh I love it. I've got to show Dad." Dani stated. She ran off to get Charlie, leaving the rest of the group in the garage. As soon as she'd left, Boulder and Heatwave could no longer stifle their laugh, not that they were trying to before anyway.

"What? Does it make me look fat?" Blades asked. It was obvious how self conscious he was about it, given the tone of his voice.

"Oh not at all, Captain Leadbelly." Heatwave laughed, making the two blondes frown.

"Come on, don't make fun of him." Cody tried telling them.

"He knows we're joking. Sort of." he replied, elbowing Boulder at the end. Both of them started laughing even harder.

"Maybe Blades just wants to be treated like he matters." Cody said crossly, storming off to the firehouse.

"Oh come on Cody, we were just…" Heatwave tried.

"You know, I never pegged you guys for being bullies." Robyn commented sadly. "Guess I don't know you guys very well. Thought you'd be different." She didn't feel like practising her routines anymore, choosing to trudge up to her room to get her phone. Having the reality of her newest friends being no more than brutes dawn on her made a lot of things seem quite off-putting. The team could always use an extra set of eyes on the roads so patrol was probably the best thing for her to do since she wouldn't be able to get her head in the game following what had been brought to light.

The alarm sounded, signifying an emergency in town, snapping Robyn out of her stupor.

"Cody get to the command centre – we have a rockslide to deal with." Charlie ordered over the tannoy. Cody hurriedly ran off, responding to the call while Robyn jogged over to the comm unit on the wall.

"Charlie, I'm gonna patrol the town, make sure nothing else is going on during your rockalanche." she informed him before grabbing her helmet from the shelf and hopping onto her bike as the rest of the team came down the elevator, heading towards their bots. "Good luck guys."

"Aren't you coming Robyn?" Kade yelled.

"No. You don't need your cheerleader hurting herself, do you?" she spat. Slamming the visor on the helmet over her eyes before pulling out of the garage.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Come on Mr. Pettypaws, easy does it." Robyn tried and failed to urge the cat out of the tree, resulting in her having to climb up it. The brittleness of the tree bark was leaving scrapes on her inner thighs shins and palms as she gripped whatever part of the tree she could, making it very uncomfortable for her to even attempt holding on. She had been roaming the streets for a good ten minutes when Mrs Needlander had flagged her down from her her front lawn. And by 'flagged down', she had yelled at the blonde officer until she pulled over to help.

Mr. Pettypaws was determined to stay up there though as he hissed at the girl trying to get him down.

"Gotcha! I got him Mrs Needlander!" she called down from the branch she was sitting on gingerly as she tried to avoid putting pressure on her raw thighs. She jumped down from the branch, sticking the landing with her gymnast prowess. "Here you go." she said, handing the white cat back to his owner.

"It's about time. It's no wonder your rescue team gets anything done at the speed you work." she snapped, slamming her front door in Robyn's face, leaving her stunned on her doorstep at the ungrateful tone. Even though, she shouldn't really be all that shocked since she'd grown up knowing that the elder woman wasn't exactly sunshine and rainbows.

"You know you're supposed to knock on the door right?" a teasing voice called out from the pavement. She spun around in fright at the sudden voice before seeing the owner, phone in one hand, red lolly in the other and blue overalls tied at the waist, a white spaghetti strap top underneath it.

"Oh my God, it's gone outside!" Robyn laughed, jumping off the front step, bounding down the pathway onto the pavement.

"Oh jeez, those look nasty!" Phillipa said, noticing her friend's raw skin. "You get in a fight with Tony the Tiger or something?" she inspected her palms, wincing in empathy.

"Nah. Tree bark."

"Lets head back to my place. I've got a fully stocked first aid kit." the engineer stated.

"Fully stocked?"

"Not my first rodeo. Welding torches leave quite the burn." she winked.

~~~Time Skip~~~

"Howcome you're not in the shop? You normally spend all waking, and sleeping, hours there." Robyn joked as her friend cleaned her palms and shins with antiseptic. "Gah! East with the stinging gel!"

"Well since the new bots came in two weeks ago, my business has been decreasing and I've not had so much work to do." Phillipa explained.

"Oh no, we aren't putting you out of a job are we? Oh God, we are! We are literally crushing my best friend's business!" Robyn panicked.

"No, no! You're doing me a favour, honestly. Since most of my work came from car accidents, rockslides and other disasters, I've not been as busy anymore since your bots keep saving everyone." she explained. "Having free time has been a Godsend. Now I've got more time for my side projects, I can go into town for some fun again. They keep this up, I'll only really be fixing your bike and checking MOT's. Maybe even the occasional breakdown" she continued. "I… I've even been thinking about… maybe, going back to school?"

"Really? I thought you went to college here on the island with me though?"

"Uh yeah, in Maths! I never actually got an engineering qualification. I learnt all the tricks of the trade from my parents, not from a textbook."

"So you want to use your free time to do more engineering? Makes sense." she muttered sarcastically, earning herself an extra wallop of antiseptic.

"Look, if I get a qualification in engineering, then I can actually turn this into a fully blown official business. I could even get better paying job in other companies because sure as hell they won't employ me if it doesn't seem like I know what I'm doing." Pip chastised, trying to make her friend understand where she was coming from and see reason.

"So you want to carry on your education." Robyn summarised. "Can't say I blame you. You're smart. You deserve the chance to prove it." she hissed at the cotton swabs dabbing her palms.

"Thanks." Pip smiled. "But uh, you can clean your thighs. I love you like a sister but I'm not putting my hands there." She laughed hard and started dousing more swabs in antiseptic and tentatively pressed them into her tender wounds.

"Thanks for helping me out Pip, God knows I need it."

"Yeah well after everything you do for the town, you deserve having someone give you a hand… or some hydrogen peroxide." she laughed.

"Yeah well, I better get back on patrol." Robyn replied.

"Okay. I'll be heading out too." Phillipa replied, grabbing her smartphone from the bench.

"What were you even doing out the first time?" she asked the engineer as they exited the garage. She held up her phone.

"Pokemon Go." she answered simply.

"Oh, of course the smartest woman on probably the entire island is into Pokemon Go. That thing kills your phone, you know?"

"Yeah, but rumour has it is there's a Dratini down at the beach at it's super uncommon when you're in the middle of nowhere. It's only got 11 minutes left available so I gotta run. See ya!" she ran, only just fully closing the door and locking it in her haste. Rolling her eyes, Robyn got back on her bike, cautious with her hands still extremely sore and carried on her patrol, trying to ignore the stinging sensation of the leather, rubber and metal against her scrapes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Nearly five hours later, Robyn begrudgingly came home to the firehouse after patrolling for another hour and a half before notifying Charlie that she finished her shift and decided to join Phillipa in her Pokemon adventure. She even had a go herself on a few, obviously not on any of the super-rare pokemon or any of Pip's favourites (so basically only Eevees. She thinks they're overrated.) and she actually managed to aim at them pretty well, only missing a few Pokemon.

Yanking her helmet off her head, she couldn't care less if she looked a mess, she wanted to avoid over half the team, bots and humans included. Kade had made her feel worthless which ticked her off, Heatwave, Chase and Boulder had been bullies to Blades because of something Dani forced him to which ticked her off, and Dani who forced something on Blades without consent and was more than likely going to argue over dinner with her again which was going to tick her off even more. She couldn't wait to go up to her room and watch a Disney film and just forget about everything the past two days.

"Hey Robyn. How was patrol?" Heatwave asked her. She stared ahead at the wall in front of her, not believing he had the audacity to act like nothing had transpired before she left.

"Hey Blades. How was that emergency?" she greeted the helicopter bot who off to the side.

"Oh it was great! I saved the others by reaching deep down into bravery I didn't know I even had! It was rough, it was dangerous but someone had to do it!" he recalled, obviously over-exaggerating everything, but she didn't care. She didn't want to bring him down after his morning. It was good that he was finally feeling good about his new scoop claw, so who was she to make him feel bad about it?

"Like she's really gonna believe-" Heatwave started grumbling to the others.

"That's great Blades!" she cut him off. "It's fantastic. You'll have to tell me about it later, yeah? I need to start making dinner for the family. I was gonna watch a Disney film later on. You wanna watch it with me?"

"Is it a comedy?"

"Well it depends on which one we pick but the modern ones are quite funny."

"Oh yay! Another movie night!" Robyn checked where the other bots were to see if they were within ear-shot.

"You hanging in there with the others earlier? What they were saying was pretty mean." she asked him.

"Boulder thanked me for saving them so I think we're okay." Blades said.

"Hm." Robyn contemplated. Just because Blades was easy to forgive, didn't mean that she was. "Well I'll be back down later with 'Wreck-it-Ralph'."  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been almost a week since the incident and Robyn had yet to spare much more than a glance at the bots, save for Blades. Her grudge had made it awkward around the firehouse and on the job when she did her rounds with Charlie and Chase.

Blades and Dani had been going up in the volume of rescues they'd been doing the past week and even though they'd taken part in some of her patrols, Robyn couldn't help but be happy for them since they had both been so down recently about not being able to help on rescues.

Kade and Graham were arguing with Dani in the kitchen while Robyn had been trying to text with Phillipa and it was getting hard for her to concentrate. She turned to Cody as the others only got more rowdy.

"You want to go down to the bunker? It should be quieter down there." she suggested.

"Yeah. I've been meaning to go see the bots." Cody said enthusiastically. They both went down the fireman pole to be met with a scary sight. If her phone hadn't been in her pocket to go down the pole then she definitely would've dropped it in shock at what met her eyes. Robyn could hardly believe what she was witnessing as the bots were holding up an electric drill to him. They were threatening him!

"Oh my God." she breathed shakily, her hands covering her mouth. How could this have been going on downstairs with none of us knowing about it? "Cody, go upstairs and wait for me there. I'll be up in a minute." she told Cody.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I'm about to snap at the bots and I'd rather not have to explain to Charlie why you've learnt some very unpleasant words." she told him. "I'll meet up with you in a few minutes okay?" He nodded and went up in the elevator. Once she was sure he wouldn't be able to hear him, she turned back to the bots who still had to realise that she was there.

"Hey!" she shouted. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" she got their attention.

"Robyn, please talk some sense into them." Blades was begging.

"Don't worry Blades, they'll have to go through me to get a shot at you." she promised, standing in front of him. "Has someone driven a rail road spike through your head or are you all really this small minded?"

"This doesn't concern you, Robyn." Heatwave brushed her off.

"No, it does concern me. Especially when you are assaulting someone. What happened to 'serve, save and protect' huh?" she bounced back.

"We just thought that it would be better if the claw wasn't used quite so often." Boulder tried to explain.

"Oh, so when you all could laugh at him, it was fine that he had it?"

"Yeah. Now that I'm the one saving the day, you don't think it's all a big joke." Blades chipped in.

"Actually you did not save the day, you assisted the day when the day had not requested assistance." Chase 'corrected' him.

"Yeah well, it's better to have him watching your six instead of being stuck in a jam with no one to help you. You ought to be a little more grateful. If Blades likes the scoop claw than that's where it's staying. If you're not okay with that then you can complete your mission somewhere else." Robyn growled.

"Couldn't have put it better myself Robyn." Dani's voice appeared. They all turned to see Dani sliding down the fireman's pole. "Come on Blades, we are going back out on patrol where we are appreciated." she said, leading Blades out onto the roof to go on patrol. Robyn quickly turned back to the remaining bots.

"You better get your acts together, or get out. Because I will not stand having bullies, be they 5ft or 50ft, living under the same roof as me and Cody." she continued.

"Robyn, I doubt there's a need to be making threats like that." Heatwave retorted.

"Well then apologise to him, and mean it." she turned to go upstairs before looking back."And that wasn't a threat. It was a promise." she went upstairs to talk with Cody.

~~~~ 2 Minutes Later~~~~~

"What happened with Blades?" Cody asked her as soon as she entered her room. Cody was sitting on her bed, fidgeting with the trim on one of her display pillows.

"Shoes off the bed." she scolded him and he hastily slid his legs off the bed. "Nothing happened with Blades that you should be worried about. The guys upset him a bit because they don't like that he's participating in 'their' rescues and Dani went out on patrol with him." she explained. "You know not to act like the bots are, don't you?" she asked, sitting on the bed next to him, crossing her legs after slipping her trainers off.

"I know. But there's something I don't really understand." Cody stated.

"And what is that?" she asked.

"When Blades forgave them for making fun of him the first time, you were still mad at them. Why were you so mad when Blades was okay with it? You've been mad at all three of them ever since." he observed. She sighed then chuckled under her breath at one of the random thoughts in her head.

"Normally, when you would ask me stuff like this I'd say 'I'll tell you when you're older'." she started solemnly

"I remember. I'd always show up a few seconds later telling you I was older." Cody laughed.

"Yeah." she smiled. "Well I suppose you're old enough for this. You sure act like you're old enough. Older than some of your siblings."

"Kade?"

"Kade." she confirmed. "Well, shortly after my parents died-" she started.

"Are you gonna finally tell me how your parents died?" he asked anxiously.

"Heavens no! Not for another few years at least." she burst his bubble. "But I'd just been put in Charlie's care. You were about only just born or about to be born so you wouldn't remember it. And after a week or two of trying to settle in and grieve, I finally started going back to school. I was around 10 at the time. Maybe 9, and I expected my peers and teachers to be supportive while I was still in mourning. But on the yard, my classmates and some of the older ones would make crude, crude remarks about their death. They'd blame me for their death, which was true, but it still hurt to hear it. They'd tease me for every hint of sadness or grieve I had about it. They acted just like the bots did." she explained sadly.

"And you've been associating what the bots were doing to Blades to what happened with you." Cody finally made the link.

"Yeah."

"What happened to the people who teased you?" he asked.

"Most of them left the island over time. A few are still here though. Charlie made me go see a psychiatrist after my parents… moved on, for a few years. And sometimes when I see one of the bullies and they say something that triggers me, I sometimes need to go back for some sessions, just to get it out of my system." she told him, feeling a great weight being lifted off her shoulder at him finally knowing some of the story.

"I get why you're mad at them, but Robyn, it sounds like you're bringing the past into the present too much. I mean, it's okay to be mad at what we saw the bots trying to do, I am too. But I don't think they're going as far as your bullies did. They're completely different people. They aren't even from the same planet!" Cody reasoned.

"I know you're right. It's just a little difficult to let it go. I will apologise to them for my behaviour as soon as they've apologised to Blades for their behaviour. Even though they acted badly, two wrongs don't make a right." Robyn confessed.

"Robyn, Cody, come in." Charlie called over the comm unit, sounding very serious. "Dani's been caught in a storm and is on Ridgeline Cliff." he said. They both looked outside to see lightning strike up on the mountains.

"We'll guide you from the command centre." Robyn said. "Come on Cody." They both rushed to the command centre and worked the camera around town to get a good view of where Dani was.

"Oh no." Cody gasped.

"Charlie, there's a wildfire where Dani and Blades are. You have to hurry." Robyn warned them, looking at the footage of the start of a wildfire.

"Alright. Kade, Heatwave, you two go ahead and start clearing a path to them." Charlie instructed.

"Uh, Dad, there are blocks and construction all through the forest. We'll never get a clear path to Dani. It'll take maybe an hour to create a path, without having to battle flames.

"Kade, Robyn can guide you through the forest from here while I try and keep in touch with Dani." Cody told him.

"You heard him Kade. Take a left and keep straight ahead. Do NOT go right, there's still boulders from the last rockslide." she told him. "Alright. You'll see a fork in the road. Go right until you reach the clearing. You'll have to go in bipedal mode from there on."

"The heck's a bipedal?" Kade shot back.

"She was talking to me, genius." Heatwave appeared on the screen in the command centre. "Where to now, Robyn?"

"Start heading up the grassy bank just ahead of you to the left. Yeah, that's the one." she guided him over the comm. "Now just keep going up. You'll hit Blades in about a minu- gah! Flames at 8 o'clock!" she warned him. He quickly turned around to stop the falling burning tree from hitting him, Chase and Boulder.

"Thanks." he thanked her. Somehow, she knew that was his way of apologising without actually saying the words. It was probably as good as she was going to get with him.

"I got your six." she stated, knowing he'd know she understood. "They're just up ahead in alt mode. Dani's inside."

"Guys, Blades is damaged and can't transform." Cody informed them.

"Good thing he doesn't need to transform." Heatwave smirked. The next thing they knew, Robyn and Cody were watching the bots literally carry Blades back in bipedal mode.

"Wow, they're really strong." Cody commented.

"He is." she agreed before freezing.

"He?" Cody asked in surprise.

"Uh, we turned the microphone off right?" she panicked, trying to compose herself.

It was off. Phew!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
"Dani, how did you feel, being a rescuer in need of rescue?" Huxley asked Dani in an interview outside the firehouse.

"I feel lucky. To be part of such a great family of heroes. And that includes my little brother Cody. Of course, we couldn't do what we do without our amazing rescue bots as well as Robyn, who even without a rescue bot, is still able to get the job done just as well as any of us." she answered.

"See that Heatwave? We're officially appreciated." Boulder nudged Heatwave who were above Cody and Robyn in the bunker as they watched the interview on the TV.

"She could've mentioned us by name." Heatwave stated.

"Remember the ants Heatwave. Remember the colony." Robyn chanted her new mantra for him.

"Blades, how are you doing?" Chase asked Blades who entered the room from the Sigma.

"Much better thank you. Spend an hour in the stasis pod and I'm ready for action." Blades told them.

"Yeah, you look good as new!" Robyn exclaimed in shock. "Hold up, if you were in there for an hour, then where've you been?"

"Oh Dani and I were retrieving the scoop claw from the cliff." he replied, making Heatwave sigh in defeat.

"You're still going to use that thing?" Boulder asked in disbelief.

"Only when it's necessary which hopefully won't be too often. That claw was so uncomfortable." he said.

"And you know what? Your waistline looks better too." Heatwave joked, making Robyn try to hide her snicker. Cody decided to go outside while she stayed with the bots.

"Why aren't you going outside Robyn?" Boulder asked her.

"Well, they're playing Burnsball and I don't really like the game so I'll just stay with you guys… if you're okay with me after behaving the way I did." she winced at the memory.

"It's fine. We were all saying and doing things we shouldn't have." Boulder forgave her.

"Your anger was logical and you were protecting your colleague. I can respect that." Chase said.

"Do what you want. We're cool." Heatwave finally said.

"Thanks guys."

~~~~Later that night~~~~

"Charlie, you have a minute?" Robyn asked from the stairs, careful not to wake up the rest of the firehouse. She was in her pyjamas, consisting of black, white and purple checked flannel bottoms and dark purple tye dye shirt. Neon green fluffy socks kept her feet warm on the white tiles of the floor. Her hair was down, not being bothered to put it up overnight in any way.

Charlie was sat in the kitchen, still looking over the day's paper since he hadn't had much time to look at it all day.

"Yeah Robyn. Are you alright?" he asked as she pulled up a chair.

"Depends on what you define as 'alright'." she muttered.

"Cody told me you told him some of the story. I think you were smart to tell him, even if it wasn't the whole tale." Charlie praised her as she focussed on the grooves the tree left in the table wood.

"I'm relieved you're not mad at me for telling him when he's still so young, and when even the others don't know the full extent." she confessed. "It was kinda scary seeing you all out in that wildfire today, even though it was just on a screen." she added. She took a deep breath before continuing. "I feel like I need to go back to therapy." Charlie looked at her for a few seconds, but felt like minutes.

"I'm glad you were able to recognise this. It means you're getting stronger with knowing your limits. Cody told me what's been going on with you and the bots too."

"He had no right." she raised her voice slightly but flushed pink when she remembered people were still sleeping.

"But I had the right to know if you were struggling with coping or if there was anything less than a good relationship between all of my team." Charlie corrected her.

"Still." she argued weakly, having no response to his point. "But yeah, I think the bots sent me too far down memory lane and I just need to get it out of my system again before I turn into a blob of hysteria." she sighed.

"I'll call Dr McSwains in the morning and get you an appointment with Dr Travers."

"Thanks Charlie. I'm gonna head to bed now. Night." she hugged him before tiptoeing back up the stairs, careful not to wake the others. Little did they know that a hot-tempered rescue bot was listening from the fireman pole.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


End file.
